I just recently went on a road trip to Vancouver. If any of you ever has the time to drive from Calgary to Vancouver, I highly recommend it. The...

Qualcomm's Next Snapdragon Is Not the 8150

Submitted by Kenneth Kwok on Wed, 11/28/2018 - 07:40

From PC Mag: I'm not 100 percent sure who started this "Snapdragon 8150" thing, but let me end it: Qualcomm is announcing the chipset that will go into all of the first major 5G phones next week, and it isn't called the Snapdragon 8150.

The full details for Qualcomm's new chipset will be announced at the company's three-day annual event; this year it's scheduled for Dec. 4-6. More than just a Qualcomm conference, it looks like this year's Snapdragon Technology Summit will be a parade of 5G-related announcements from carriers, phone makers, and laptop manufacturers.

Last year, we saw the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 and the first full Windows 10 laptops running on Snapdragon chips. This year, we expect to see all major US carriers and several smartphone makers pledging their allegiance to Qualcomm 5G.

Qualcomm will make the 5G modem we're most likely to see on smartphones in the US in 2019. Huawei is developing its own, but it's effectively banned from the US. Samsung has one, but it tends to use Qualcomm components in its US models. Mediatek will have a 5G modem later in 2019. Intel is working on one, which Apple is likely to use, but we probably won't see that in phones until 2020.

I've already gotten a note from Motorola asking to meet at Qualcomm's event. It says its Moto Z3 will have a 5G add-on next year with a Qualcomm modem in it. OnePlus and LG have said they'll have 5G phones next year, and rumors about a 5G-capable Samsung Galaxy S10 are currently rife.